Six Golden Gate Series paintings will be featured along with other recent works.

This is an opportunity to have a lively conversation with me and other guests. I will be serving bread, cheese, wine and cappuccinos. Go to 'Visit Studio' on this website for directions to my studio.

Postcards and Archival Prints:

Postcards of Oakland and Occupy derived from some of my favorite paintings will be available, as well as archival prints of many of my works.

The Golden Gate Bridge from Kirby Cove, oil/canvas, 20" X 36". 2012

"The Golden Gate Bridge from Kirby Cove' (above) will be among those on view at my Open Studio.

Other Exhibitions:

George Krevsky Gallery
The painting below, titled 'The Golden Gate Bridge from the Marin Headlands' is on exhibition at the George Krevsky Gallery. 77 Kearny St., San Francisco until June 9th. It is also included in the gallery's gorgeous catalogue for the exhibition 'Artistic Visions of the Golden Gate Bridge' available through ePressBooks,Inc.

SFMOMA Artists' Gallery, Fort Mason

Four other paintings from my 'Golden Gate Series' will be on exhibition at the SFMOMA Artists' Gallery from May 26 - June 28th. Including this panorama :

Golden Gate Bridge from Below the Palace of the Legion of Honor

About the Golden Gate Series:

When I started these works, I thought “Painting this bridge is akin to painting the Eiffel Tower. It's been 'done' so many times!” However, I soon discovered that this particular marriage of high technology and landscape is archetypal. What began as a few paintings became a series.

From an outlook below the Palace of the Legion of Honor (See above) the bridge appears improbably delicate. A fine web of steel spanning two headlands. It is an expression of pure physics. As beautiful as a spider's web and almost as minimal.

Kr.GGBridge.5

Up close - from the waterfront approaching Fort Point - the bridge overwhelms with it's scale and with the muscular grace of it's art deco details. The swells rounding Fort Point roll past the orange towers that rise from the ocean to conduct a steady flow of pedestrians and vehicles effortlessly across the watery chasm.

Where I stand painting this engineering marvel the waves crash up against the waterfront, splashing me and my painting and, on one occasion, drenching my truck.

The bridge embodies in its design the conviction of the nineteenth and early twentieth century that technology could overcome nature, extract great benefits from it, but exist in harmony with it. It took the horrors of modern warfare, the nuclear age, environmental degradation and climate change to tarnish this conviction. From a visual point of view the bridge expresses this antiquated aspiration perfectly.

But from the point of view of function the bridge is a conduit for an enormous amount of internal combustion traffic-hooked on fossil fuels. The Golden Gate Bridge Commission could help break this addiction by offering owners of electric cars three, toll free years. This would be a great incentive to go electric.

The bridge also embodies the optimism of the Roosevelt period. Amadeo Giannini, the founder of the Bank of America, in the midst of the Great Depression purchased all the bonds for the construction of the bridge so as to provide employment for workers in San Francisco. It is impossible today to imagine a banker with such a sense of social obligation!

'Three Painters Witness Occupy Oakland and Occupy San Francisco' on youtube I recommend that you watch this eight minute video in its entirety before reading today's blog. Don't miss the images in the credits. Enjoy...

We all know that the rebellious young artists who gathered around Camille Pissarro in the 1870's and 1880's gave birth to the first modern art movement, Impressionism. But the radical political origins of this movement are not generally understood. 'Pissarro's People' at the Palace of the Legion of Honor in San Francisco Legion of Honor highlights the radical ambiance within which this movement was born and the central role of Camille Pissarro, a life-long anarcho-syndicalist, in nurturing and shepherding the movement. Artists as diverse as Gauguin and Cezanne acknowledged their artistic debt to the man Cezanne referred to as the 'humble and colossal Camille Pissarro'

The democratic egalitarianism of anarchism inspired these artists to work together in a rare spirit of collegiality which enabled Impressionism to advance into virgin territory. Because these artists were comfortable on the street, among the people, their work shares a universality that continues to engage the public.

As international collectors swarmed the 'School of Paris', artists scrambled to create new 'isms' and modernism, nurtured on political radicalism, morphed into radical experimentation which remained vital up through Abstract Expressionism.

Pop Art marked the end of the original radical impulse and the beginning of an unhealthy union of the marketplace and art institutions.

The Triumphalism of the 'American Century' which led to the absurd assertion, in the 1990's, that we had reached the 'end of history' was anticipated in 1970's by art writers who proclaimed the 'end of painting' .

There is no denying the achievements of artists as diverse as, say, Walter de Maria, Christo or Andy Goldsworthy who confirm this narrative. But to characterize the activity of painting, which we have engaged in for thousands of years, as no longer relevant appeared to me, even in those days when I was studying at the San Francisco Art Institute, to be absurd. It strengthened my resolve to explore new possibilities within realistic painting.

Painting is a fundamental laboratory of the imagination. Painting from life, studying, absorbing, refining and communicating our experience in a direct, physical way opens our eyes to reality on a deep level. It refines our capacity for empathy which is the currency of art.

The unexpected emergence of the Occupy Movement is a sign that the country is finally awakening from the delusion of American triumphalism. The 'street' is re-entering the political dialogue. It is a good time to be out on the street channeling this populist energy.

My brother and only sibling, Graham Holdsworth, died in Normandy, France last June. He was three years younger than me. Like everyone in our family he was an avid gardener, so when I returned home from saying goodby to him, I took refuge in my garden and began, almost by chance, painting the Cabbage Series:

Gabbage.1.2.Web

Cabbage.3.4.5

Cabbage.6.7

As I harvested the cabbages, I continued painting. The series became a meditation on, not simply the loss of my entire immediate family, but on our lives together over so many years.

These works are some of my first painted on thin, hardwood ply. They represent a new chapter in my urban landscapes, as they were created using my new bike and trailer which I've outfitted to carry painting gear and plywood panels up to 20" x 26".

Bike.2.Web

They eliminate the four F's of setting up to paint on city streets: parking Fees & Fines and Fossil Fuels.

In the back of the trailer (Below Left) you can see my easel and painting table on top of a narrow wooden box that carries the plywood canvases. Brushes and paints are stored below.

Cart.Easel.Web

The easel itself (Above Right) has a wooden table that doubles as a protective carrier for a canvas and a paint filled palette when it is not attached to the easel. It was designed and built by myself and painter Marvin Dalander.

If you, like most of us, have tightened your belt in this ailing economy you've probably decided to forgo purchasing luxuries like original art.

I am offering limited edition, archival prints on paper or canvas of some of my best paintings at unusually low prices. Prices that are one half to one quarter the going rate for archival reproductions!

Created under my supervision at Magnolia Editions in Oakland, the prints on paper are pigmented ink-jet on archival paper. The prints on canvas, which to the casual eye are indistinguishable from original paintings, are stretched and ready to hang. They are protected with two layers of UV resistant matt varnish.

These are not the original works, but they are as close as you can get for a fraction of the price.

StormCloudsOverFlorence.WebLg

Because they are signed, limited editions they will appreciate modestly over time. Properly cared for they should remain vibrant for four to five generations.

Painted on location in San Francisco, Italy, Istria, Oakland, Mexico and Cuba the more than forty images start at $ 125 for a square foot print on paper (edition limited to 200). The large prints on canvas (five square feet – edition limited to forty) signed and ready to hang are $ 700.

'New'.WebLg

Consider purchasing these archival prints not only for your home or office but as special gifts for close friends and family.

For rebates on shipping and handling fees::

If you are within driving distance of my studio, phone me when you make your order. We can arrange for you to pick up your purchase and I will refund the shipping and handling fees at that time.(It may take me two or three days to return your call. Production of prints may take up to ten days.)

About the artist

Anthony Holdsworth was born in England in 1945. He was introduced to oil painting in high school by the New England painter, Loring Coleman. Holdsworth embarked on a painting career while working as Head of Outdoor Restoration for the Uffizi Gallery in Florence, Italy after the flood of 1966. He continued his studies at the Bournemouth College of Art in England where he studied with master draftsman Samuel Rabin and color theorist Jon Fish and at the San Francisco Art Institute where he studied with Julius Hatofsky, Bruce McGaw and Fred Martin. He has shown with major galleries in Oakland, San Francisco, Sacramento and Los Angeles. He has participated in two exhibitions at the Oakland Museum. He was included in the California Cityscapes exhibition at the San Diego Museum. He was a recipient of WESTAF-NEA fellowship in 1990. His work is in corporate and private collections worldwide.